Former yogi Michael Conti said he knows about it all too well. He suffered permanent nerve damage in his leg, and he said yoga is to blame.

“I thought maybe I tweaked my knee or something, and then it turned out to be much more serious,” Conti said.

Criticizing the ancient practice of yoga may seem like bad karma, but author William Broad wrote a book investigating the risk and rewards of the beloved exercise, and investigated yoga injuries in men.

“Most of the letters I’m getting about serious injuries have been from guys,” Broad said.

Broad found that although men make up only 16 percent of his study, they accounted for 24 percent of the dislocations, 30 percent of the fractures, and a whopping 71 percent of nerve damage injuries linked to yoga.

By contrast, women accounted for the vast majority of fainting episodes.

“Women see it as relaxation and a release,” Hagan said. “Men are often coming to it with a competitive edge, with ‘I can push it harder.’”

The bottom line, according to experts, is that yoga should never be looked as a competition or a sport. It is more of a way of life for which you need to be physically and mentally prepared.